Minimum Effort?

June 18, 2019

For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same? (Matthew 5:43-48)

One of the guys on my college dorm floor would do the same thing each time he  started a new class. He would study the syllabus in order to determine the minimum he would need to do in order to pass the course.

If attendance requirements said he could miss up to six classes and still pass the course, he would definitely miss six classes. If a paper needed to be three to five pages in length, it would be three pages (barely). If he needed to log a minimum of two hours of lab time per week, his time in the lab would not be a minute over two hours.

You get the idea – he had doing the minimum down to a science. Actually, he took great pride in doing the minimum.

When God watches how we approach our faith life, what does He see?

Attend Mass on Sunday. Check.

Put your envelope in the collection basket. Check.

Pray before meals. Check.

You might want to look at God’s syllabus again…